And so the Purple and Gold prevail. Were you surprised? You shouldn’t have been. Most sports fans will not refute the Lakers’ overwhelming size, experience, and talent advantage over the Hornets. The only thing, then, that should be surprising is how did it take six (as opposed to a sweep)?

Heart.

But despite the heart and great efforts of the Hornets in game 6, Lakers walk away with a 98-80 blowout triumph, taking the series win 4-2. Much to the dismay of Hornets fans that have been vocal about their skepticism as to the validity of Kobe’s injury, The Ankle scored 9 points by the first half (24 points in total), while CP3 only put up 2 points (in total, 10 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds). The Lakers had relatively poor shooting in the first half, shooting only .35 in the first quarter. But because of their superior defense that everyone keeps talking about, they still caused New Orleans trouble. How much trouble? By the bottom of the second quarter, Los Angeles led 39-32; going into half time, they were up 40-34 on a 9-4 run. Bryant also outscored CP3 by .45 in the first half, a turnaround from game 1 when CP3 had nearly tripled the points of Kobe.

Now that the No. 2 seeded Los Angeles Lakers advance to round 2 of the playoffs, what can they expect? Facing the No. 3 seeded Dallas Mavericks, who beat Portland in 6, Lakers can expect a tough yet exciting series. Though they beat the Mavs 2-1 in the regular season, Dallas will be tough competition–with Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Tyson Chandler serving as very pointy thorns. Chandler will have to serve as Mavericks’ answer to Bynum–who so far has been tough to stop in the post season. Again, Lakers have an advantage with size, and thus Dirk will have to force Gasol to be aggressive–who for all practical purposes hasn’t been. If Dirk challenges that D, it can interfere with Gasol’s scoring. And considering Gasol was in triple digits in points in Thursday’s game, that is an important task to complete. Terry will be one of the most crucial players coming off the bench. He has to essentially duplicate his offensive performance with the Blazers on the Lakers and score, score, score.

It is tough to call this series; both teams play exceptional ball. But unless Mavs can find a consistent, irrefutable answer to the Lakers’ Bynum, their center both literally and figuratively, it will be Lakers in 6.

Tune in to Game 1 as Lakers host the Mavericks on Monday, May 2, 2011 at 10:30 PM (Eastern) on TNT.

You can also tune in to my tweets of the game at @NicholasV1980.

Check out the *schedule below (all times Eastern and tip-off):

May 2 GAME 1- Mavs@ Lakers at 10:30 PM on TNT

May 4 GAME 2-Mavs@ Lakers at 10:30 PM on TNT

May 6 GAME 3-Lakers@ Mavs on ESPN

May 8 GAME 4- Lakers@ Mavs on ABC

May 10 GAME 5- Mavs@ Lakers on TNT

May 12 GAME 6- Lakers@ Mavs on ESPN

May 15 GAME 7- Mavs@Lakers at 3:30 PM on ABC

*with the exception of where indicated, all times are TBD; GAMES 5, 6, 7 are also TBD